So I thought I would start this journal to document my journey on the purchase and modicifations to this car.

I had origianlly planned on buying a IOM in IO interior. I wanted a fairly base car as I always had ambitions of modifing the car but after 10 weeks of research and investigation I have just purchased a Yellow car 2 SS / RS with 5,000 miles.

I had unfortunately had a false start in that I had a deal to buy a yellow 550 Hennessey car but HOURS before I was to wire the money (and after I had arranged a flight, paperwork for the border and insurance) he calls me up to say he had sold it to someone else for $5k more. That cost me a LOT. Not because of the price exactly but because I had exercised stock options to pay for the car. Three weeks later and after exercising my stock options the stock is $10 higher. That meant a $13,000 'loss'.

I bought this car for a price I'm VERY happy with, $31,049. In addition it came with the OEM GFX and stripes but they were NOT installed. I'm confident that I can sell the GFGX for about $1300 - $1400.

After cementing the deal I asked WHY they were not installed and why the GM dealer that was selling the car did not keep them.

THEN I found out that the car was originally sold by another dealer as the "test car" for Consumers Reports.....here is a link with a picture of the car....very cool

He said they did not care about the GFX or rally strip so when they were finished with the car they just brought it to them to sell and left the "parts" behind. My gain.

So I have had to arrange for the car to be shipped from Hamden CT to Blaine WA which is about as far away as you can get and still be on dry land. I'll meet it at Blaine and then bring it through the border. It cost $1,250 for the shipping.

Currently I plan a very radical and significant build and I'll update this journal with time.

I have to decide on what accent I go with. At this point I'm inclined to go with Chrome and carbon fiber. I like the Siebon CF GFX as well as their ST Trunk. I also like the CF hood from Siebon and I would get it painted so the CF shows as stripes BUT I REALLY like the idea of a window hood. I see that ACS is about to release such a hood but how can I get CF stripes arranged? don't know. But the chrome blower with CF rail covers would look very nice.

So what has happened so far? Driove the car to Calgary and had the Davenport 670 package. chrome TVS, cam, headers, exhaust ADM CAI. 591 rwhp. Also Pfadt coil overs.

Car interior pieces are getting covered in Yellow Kevlar. Almost done. Here is a picture of the engine bay. Fuel rail covers have yellow kevlar as well but not finished yet. Also missing the ADM cover from Dan at Showstoppers.

So what has happened so far? Driove the car to Calgary and had the Davenport 670 package. chrome TVS, cam, headers, exhaust ADM CAI. 591 rwhp. Also Pfadt coil overs.

Car interior pieces are getting covered in Yellow Kevlar. Almost done. Here is a picture of the engine bay. Fuel rail covers have yellow kevlar as well but not finished yet. Also missing the ADM cover from Dan at Showstoppers.

So Savini made a mistake which they off course are happy to fix and fortunately they caught it before shipping to me but here is a idea. (this wheel just has the accent line of the spoke painted...I want the whole interior of the spoke painted.

So things are finally moving along now although we have had some problems.

Hood: The Siebon hood is a pretty good hood for the money. That being said, it has a resin coating (as they all do) and the superior option is epoxy. In addition I want the ZR1 window and it needs a little more stability. So....we have epoxied the hood, we will re-wrap it in carbon, and then put the window in. They are doing that today.

Trunk: I had wanted the Siebon ST trunk but it is on back-order forever and I cannot wait. I bought an MPD spoiler. We will fiberglass the spoiler onto the stock trunk, and wrap the whole trunk in carbon to get a 'one piece' look.

Wheels: the wheels from Savini are on the way after way having had the inside of the spokes painted.

Calipers: I have elected to get the calipers painted yellow

Roof: yesterday the builder had a great idea that we have decided to do. Wrap the roof in carbon (using epoxy of course) and rather then have exposed CF rally stripes as originally intended....have carbon hood, roof and trunk with YELLOW rally stripes. I have approved that decision as of about 10 mins ago. I sure hope it looks good.

Ground affects: we managed to get some CF gfx from VIS Racing through Gary's customs and they look very good. My builder is impressed with the quality. We will season them a little and then re-clear a couple of times but basically they fit very well and get two thumbs up.

Interior: 60% of the interior parts have been wrapped in yellow kevlar, epoxied and are now being trimmed. This is hand layed and very time consuming BUT...it is being done 'right'. That being said, the builder (Iggy - board member) is a little anxious about the tight corners of the dash bezel and the steering wheel.

Leather: This has been the one troubling area. The local leather / interior guy (or his supplier) has let us down. After 5 weeks he has not been able to source an appropriate yellow leather and we have now pulled the plug on him. I'll now be trying Geraldo of DSV Customs to see what he can do.

Paint: This was also a big decision that I do not know how it will end up and that is to use a tinted clear coat to get a colour a little closer to Bumblebee. Iggy says it will look "Butterscotch". That was a big decision as now that car has to be taken apart, windows and trim removed, door jamb's, engine bay, get the showstopper parts painted, the wheels and calipers will need to be done. yikes. I must be insane and this budget is spinning away from me.

This decision will also cause problems with respect to getting the right coloured leather dye.

Badging: going to get the badges replaced with CF cut pieces.

Our 'soft' deadline is for an F-body cruise of Aug 28th but that is probably unlikely....Hard deadline is for a show on Labour day weekend.

So here are the wheels....and a picture of the current state of the car. You will see the CF GFX on the ground as well as the MPD spolier. They are sanding the rook to lay CF on it. I had to have the windshield and reaer glass removed. Apparantly there is a VERY high likelyhood that the windshield breaks upon removal AND you cannot buy the rubber pieces seperately so the removal process had to be done VERY carefully and patiently.

So here are the wheels....and a picture of the current state of the car. You will see the CF GFX on the ground as well as the MPD spolier. They are sanding the rook to lay CF on it. I had to have the windshield and reaer glass removed. Apparantly there is a VERY high likelyhood that the windshield breaks upon removal AND you cannot buy the rubber pieces seperately so the removal process had to be done VERY carefully and patiently.